Innocent woman attacked by police dog while she took out her rubbish

WARNING - DISTRESSING CONTENT: A US woman has filed a lawsuit against a police officer after his police dog bit her arm while she was innocently taking out her rubbish.

Desiree Collins, 59, from Minnesota, was left writhing in pain as the dog clamped its jaws on her bicep beside an industrial bin near her home on September 23 as police hunted two suspected burglary culprits in the area.

Police bodycam footage reveals the terrifying moment Collins lay on the ground screaming in fear with the dog refusing to let go.

St Paul police officers can be seen trying to free Collins from the hound, before eventually loosening the grip and pulling her to her feet.

She can be heard asking: “What did I do to him?”

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“Nothing... just in the wrong place at the wrong time," an officer responds.

Police have since apologised for the incident, which they claim was an accident that should never have happened, The Washington Post reported.

“As a department, we wish we could go back and do things differently. Unfortunately, we can’t,” St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell said in a statement.

But Collins disagrees and has moved to press charges against the dog's handler, Thaddeus Schmidt, who she believes was responsible for the unprovoked attack.

"What you have here is a completely innocent person taking out their garbage... and a K9 simply wasn’t controlled," Collins’s attorney, Andrew Noel, told the Star Tribune.

Following the incident, Schmidt was reportedly suspended for one day for having the dog on a long leash, allowing the dog to get out of sight.